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American Missionary Association. 



The Debt of Our Country 



TO THE 



American Highlanders 

During the War. 



BY 



SECRETARY C. J. RYDER. 



287 Fourth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 



$-31 



THE WAY THE DEBT WAS INCURRED. 
GIFT OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 






-**f-. 





By permission of McCho-e's Mufyazine. Lincoln's BIRTHPLACE. 



21 Je'07 



The Debt of Our Country to the American Highlanders 
During the War. 

SECRETARY C. J. RYDER. 

In the following Paper, East Tennessee as a whole is spoken of 
as a Mountain State, being bounded and intersected by great moun- 
tain ranges, and all of its people are referred to as mountaineers or 
Highlanders. The creditable war record of which we speak belongs 
to the entire section. Strictly speaking, however. East Tennessee is 
an elevated valley, lying between two great mountain ranges. Within 
this region itself, the term mountaineers is applied to those who dwell 
in the distinctively mountainous districts of the section. And it is in 
these districts especially that the destitution exists, which our society 
is endeavoring to supply. The general culture and intelligence, and 
earnest religious activity of other districts of the section must not be 
lost sight of, and are most heartily attested by the writer. 

Every new chapter that opens to us in the wonderful history of 
these mountain people adds to our interest in and our regard for 
them. Springing, as they do, from French Huguenots and Scotch 
Presbyterians, the heroic qualities of both have mingled in their 
blood. James Robertson, their Scotch Presbyterian ancestor, has 
been characterized as "Miles Standish without his Puritanism, John 
Brown without his fanaticism. H2 walked by faith and not by 
sight . . . undertaking and achieving projects which to cool 
reason, would seem absolutely chimerical." John Sevier, the 
Huguenot ancestor of these Highlanders, was the equal, if not 
the superior, of his Presbyterian comrade in the pioneer settlement 
of this mountain region. When he led the clans to meet the British 
at King's Mountain, September 25, 1780, after Parson Doak had com- 
mitted them to the divine protection, his brave followers rode after 
him, making the woods on the old mountains echo with their peculiar 
but reverent battle cry, " With the sword of the Lord and our Gideon." 
And when, after the battle, these same men shouted themselves hoarse 
over " Nolichucky Jack," they rejoiced in a victory that turned the 
tide of battle in favor of the colonies. " The British power in the 
colonies was broken at King's Mountain." This fact Jefferson recog- 
nized in the following words : " That glorious victory was the joyous 
annunciation of that turn in the tide of success which terminated the 
revolutionary war with the seal of independence." 

The debt which our country owed these mountain warriors for 
their heroic service during the revolution, was recognized both by 



word and deed. A sword was presented to John Sevier, which bore 
upon its blade the following : 

"State of North Carolina 

TO 

Colonel John Sevier." 

On the other side is : 

"King's Mountain, 
7th October, 1780." 

The General Assembly of North Carolina passed a vote of thanks. 
Such were the achievements of these heroic mountain people, when the 
colonies were fighting for independence. There was the same un- 
swerving devotion to their country, on the part of the children of 
these revolutionary heroes, during the war of the rebellion. The ob- 
ject of this paper is to trace their loyal heroism, and to bring more 
vividly before us the tremendous debt we owe these brave Highlanders 
for their unswerving devotion to our flag and country during the dark 
days from i860 to 1865. Their loyalty involved supreme sacrifice, 
and they knew it. It meant the destruction of their crops ; the burn- 
ing of their homes ; cruel outrages heaped upon their women and 
children, and often their own execution as outlaws ! We who lived 
in the favored North knew scarcely anything of sacrifice for country 
in comparison with what these mountain people endured. That I 
may not seem to exaggerate the terrible conditions under which they 
were brought by their loyalty, I quote from an order of the rebel 
government, which was directed especially against these loyal High- 
landers. It reads as follows : 

"War Department, 
Richmond, November 25, 1861. 
" Colonel W. B. Wood: 

Sir — Your report of the 20th inst. is received, and I now proceed 
to give you the desired instruction in relation to the prisoners of war 
taken by you among the traitors of East Tennessee. 

I. All such as can be identified as having been engaged in bridge- 
burning are to be tried summarily by drum-head court-martial, and, 
if found guilty, executed on the spot by hanging. It would be well 
to leave their bodies hanging in the vicinit)' of the burned bridges." 

This order, horrible in its cruelty, contains two other articles bear- 
ing upon the same matter, and closes as follows : " Your vigilant execu- 
tion of these orders is earnestly urged by the government. 
Your obedient servant, 

J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of War." 

Here were men whose only crime was loyalty to their country ; 
who had burned the bridge across their mountain stream to protect 



their homes from destruction, and their families from outrage, Trom 
the roving band of rebel cavalry. Those men were consigned to a 
mock trial and immediate hanging, and to have their bodies exposed 
for days, a sickening horror before the eyes of their families ! It 
hardly seems credible that any government that ever existed could 
have issued such an order as this, intending it should be obeyed. 
But painful facts proved that this order was issued by the rebel gov- 
ernment to be obeyed, and it was obeyed in numerous instances. At 
Greenville two men, Mensie and Fry, were hanged with no legal trial, 
and " their bodies, instead of being quartered and distributed abroad, 
after an old English custom, were left suspended for four days near 
the railroad track." 

On another occasion two men by the name of Harmon, father and 
son, were hanged for bridge-burning. The rebel authorities provided 
only one gallows, and compelled the father to stand by and watch his 
son pass through the sickening struggle of strangulation, and then 
march upon the same scaffold and meet his own awful doom. 

These facts show what the terrible price of loyalty was which 
these Highlanders paid. And the facts quoted above, revolting and 
sickening as they are, are only typical, for pages and volumes might 
be filled with similar incidents of cruel outrage and unswerving loy- 
alty which these Southern mountains witnessed, I repeat that we in 
the North scarcely knew the meaning of sacrifice for our country in 
comparison with the bitter experience of these mountain people. And 
yet they never wavered in their loyalty to the government. Another 
writes of them as follows: " In numerous instances starvation, like 
a gaunt wolf, threatened the door, and the hearts of many were 
sickened by the hope of succor long deferred, but the fire of devotion 
to the Union still lived and glowed within them, strong and bright, 
until the end came." The author of the volume entitled, " Loyal 
Mountaineers of East Tennessee," himself a native of East Tennessee, 
has the truth on his side when he writes as follows: " It is certain 
that the steadfast attachment of East Tennessee to the Union, and the 
efficient aid it gave to its preservation, formed an important factor in 
the war, and contributed in no small degree to its final result." 

Having then reviewed the painful circumstances into which these 
Highlanders were being brought by their loyalty, and the large ele- 
ment their heroic services were in securing the final victory, let us 
analyze the debt we owe them for their unswerving patriotism, and 
discover some of the items that it includes. Let us take, first, the 
general facts. The mountain States of West Virginia, Kentucky and 
East Tennessee never seceded. In February, 1861, the vote was taken 
in Tennessee, and by a splendid majority of 60,000 votes, that State 
emphasized her loyalty to the Union. This tremendous majority was 



largely piled up in the mountain counties. Even after this decided 
repudiation of secession had been given by the people, the Rebel State 
Government entered into a military league with the Southern Con- 
federacy. But even then East Tennessee remained loyal, and asked 
to be set aside as a separate commonwealth, as West Virginia after- 
ward was. 

Passing up into Kentucky, we find much the same line of cleavage 
between treason and patriotism. The Blue Grass region was filled 
with traitors, while the mountains echoed to the tramp of the gather- 
ing clan of loyal Highlanders. The situation of the two camps was 
significant. The rebels, under Humphrey Marshall, had their recruit- 
ing camp in Owen County, within a few miles of the State Capitol, 
while the Unionists gathered at Camp Dick Robinson, in Gerrard 
County, at the edge of the mountain region. The State Guards, or- 
ganized and armed for the defense of the loyal government, composed 
largely of the aristocratic Blue Grass men, proved disloyal, and deserted 
the flag almost to a man. But the Home Guards, recruited quite largely 
from the plain mountain people, met Zollicoffer, as he invaded the State 
through Cumberland Gap, bravely defended their State, marching 
under the flag of their country. The first battle was fought not far 
from Barbourville, among the mountains of Knox County. We learn, 
therefore, so far as we have the history of the united action of these 
Highlanders in the several States, that they were always, almost 
unanimously, loyal to the country. The same fact is evident in the 
number of troops that were recruited for the Union army. 

Tennessee furnished 31,000 loyal white troops, and 30,000 of these 
came from the loyal Highlanders of East Tennessee. Only 1,000 
from all the rest of the State ! The mountain State of West Virginia 
furnished 32,000 loyal soldiers, while her population was only 393,000. 
Kentucky furnished 79,000 soldiers for the loyal army. N. S. Shaler, 
writing in the Commonwealth Series, says of Kentucky : " Out of a 
total enrollment of 133,493 of military age . . . Kentucky fur- 
nished and mustered into the United States service 76,335 men." And 
he adds that, " in addition to this, 7,000 men enlisted who were not 
mustered in, and 10,000 men were in the loyal Home Guards." 
" Nearly one-tenth of the total population of the State " in the loyal 
army ! And these men came very largely from the mountain region. 
A mountain man once said to me : 

" Whar was you raised ?" 

" In Ohio," I replied. 

" I reckon you had the draft in Ohio, didn't you?" 

"Yes," I replied, "we did." 

" We didn't have any draft down here in the mountains." 

"That's strange," I replied. " Why didn't you have a draft ?" 



" Becteiise we enlisted so fast in the Union army they couldn't catch 
us with the draft," replied the loyal Highlander, proudly 

And this is literally true. I quote again from the authority given 
above: "Kentucky's quota of troops was always full, and despite 
the fact that over 40,000 of her young men did go into the rebellion, 
she raised all the men that fell to her share, almost without bounties 
and practically without a draft, a patriotic record that was not ex- 
ceeded, if it was equaled, by any State in the Union." The mountain 
States of Kentucky, West Virginia and East Tennessee furnished 
140,000 troops to the Union army, whereas New Hampshire, Vermont 
and Connecticut furnished only 116,000, 24,000 less than these South- 
ern Highlanders. And the enrollment of loyal troops among the 
mountaineers was greater than the total enrollment of Union troops 
from Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Minnesota, Dakota, Nevada, 
Oregon and Washington, by 7,000. Who can blame the loyal High- 
landers that they cherish considerable pride in their war history ? 
Ever}^ effort was made by the rebel authorities to entice them into 
secession. The brilliant Confederate General, Albert Sidney Johnston, 
himself a Kentuckian, was sent among them with an army, with the 
impression that State pride would seduce them. But neither by elo- 
quence of tongue nor argument of cannon could this son of Kentucky 
persuade these heroic patriots to betray their country, or to desert 
her flag ! 

In this debt that our country owes to these loyal Highlanders for 
their united acts of loyalty, we have discovered the following items : 

1. Overwhelming Union majorities in popular votes. 

2. Enthusiastic loyal conventions after other Southern States, and 
even parts of their own States, had seceded. 

3. Obstinate resistance against the rebel force by loyal Highland 
ilans. 

4. One hundred and fifty thousand volunteers in the Union army, 
enlisting without bounty and without draft? 

This surely were enough to rouse every patriot, not to say 
Christian, to pay this enormous debt which we owe these mountain 
people for their heroic service during the war. But there are other 
items in this bill which we need to review. Their private sacrifices 
during these days of blood and cruelty were heroic and pathetic. 

Take a few incidents which illustrate this inner and personal his- 
tory, that we may realize how noble and yet how sad their devotion 
was. 

" If you can be merry then, I'll say, 
A man may weep upon his wedding day." 

Here are some facts recorded in the diary of brave old Parson 
Brownlow when he was a prisoner in the jail at Knoxville. 



Brownlow writes : " Dec. 7 thirty-one other prisoners arrived from 
Cocke, Greene and Jefferson counties. They bring us tales of woe 
from their respective counties as to the treatment of Union men and 
their families by the . . . cavalry in rebellion." 

" Dec. 9. . . . twenty-eight are in from Jefferson and Cocke 
counties." 

Fifteen arrived in the prison the next day but one, and on the 12th 
of December fifteen were sent to Tuscaloosa, Fla. Of these Brown- 
low says: "They had no trial, but were sent upon their admission 
that they had been found in arms as Union men, preparing to defend 
themselves against the assaults and robberies of the so-called Con- 
federate cavalry. Poor fellows! They hated to go." All the coun- 
ties from which Union prisoners came were mountain counties. 

Take the following three instances given by Parson Brownlow, 
under date of Dec. 15, 16 and 17, which are taken from many similar 
instances, as illustrating the horrible brutality of the Confederate 
authorities toward these mountain people, and their unswerving pat- 
riotism. Brownlow writes: "Levy Trewhitt, an able lawyer, but an 
old man, will never get back. His sons came to see him, but were 
denied the privilege. Dr. Hunt, from the same county of Bradley, 
has also gone (to Tuscaloosa). His wife came sixty miles to see him 
and came to the jail door, but was refused admittance." 

"Dec. 16. They brought in Dr. Wells and Col. Morris, of Knox 
County, two clever men and good citizens. Their offense is that they 
are Union men, first, and next they voted and electioneered as old 
Whigs . . . years ago." 

"Dec. 17. Brought in a Union man from Campbell Covmty to- 
day, leaving behind six small children, and their mother dead. This 
man's offense is holding out for the Union. To-night two brothers 
named Walker came in from Hawkins County, charged with having 
'talked Union talk.'" Col. N. G. Taylor, who collected material for 
an unwritten history of East Tennessee, writes to a friend, under date 
of Feb. 22, 1866, as follows: "I was at some pains to gather up from 
different counties the facts . . . and the result showed an aggre- 
gate of from 2,500 to 3,000 non-combatants massacred for their Union 
sentiments." He gives the counties in which these outrages were 
perpetrated. In every case they were mountain counties, and those 
who died rather than surrender their loyalty to the Union were High- 
landers. The only crime of which these men were guilty was that of 
loyalty. Judge C. W. Hall, of Rogersville, Tenn., in a volume en- 
titled " Threescore Years and Ten," by a lawyer (Cin., 1884), after 
repeating incidents of outrage against Union men of which he knew, 
adds: "These outrages were not confined to the more populous por- 
tions of the counties, but were often perpetrated in the hills and hol- 
lows, and usually upon men reputable at home, but bold enough to 
confess their loyalty. Indeed, it was a rare thing to find n man who 
had a bad character before the war advocating the Union cause." But 
these Highlanders were loyal despite these bitter persecutions. Were 
it not abundantly proven by history, we could scarcely believe that 
such methods were employed to overcome their unswerving patriot- 
ism. Dr. Humes, in the " Loyal Mountaineers," has preserved the 
following advertisement, which originally appeared in the Memphis 
Appeal: 



" Bloodhounds Wanted ! 

"We, the undersigned, will pay $5 per pair for fifty pairs of well- 
bred hounds, and $50 for one pair of thoroughbred bloodhounds that 
will take the track of a man. The purpose for which these dogs are 
wanted is to chase the infernal, cowardly, bushwhackers of East Ten- 
nessee and Kentucky. * * * " F. N. McNairy, 

" H. H. Harris. 
" Camp, Crinfuth, Campbell Co., 
Tenn., Nov. 16, (1861)." 

But bloodhounds were as ineffective as bullets or hangmen's ropes, 
for turning these brave men away from loyalty to their country. And 
the loyalty of the mountain women was as steadfast as that of the 
men. When General Blair marched to the relief of Burnside at 
Knoxville, women "crowded the line of his forced march to welcome 
the sight of our armies ; to wave the flags which in evil days they 
had hidden in the secret recesses of their homes, even as they kept 
the love of the Union in their hearts ; to bring the last piece of bacon 
and the last handful of meal to feed the advancing soldiers of the 
Union cause." 

There were deeds of valor by mountain heroines that shine as 
brightly as those of a Molly Stark or Barbara Frietchie. Mrs. 
Edwards, of Campbell County, marched 150 miles in inclement 
weather, over the mountains, to carry information to Union troops. 
Immediately upon arriving at home, having received some valuable 
information, she pushed her way through the rain, on horseback, 
alone, and saved the Union General Spears from capture ! General 
Spears was so impressed by her daring and patriotic exploit that he 
recommended that the Federal Government should reward her for it, 
but no reward has ever been paid. Again and again this same 
woman took perilous journeys to carry information to Union officers. 
Nor was she the only heroine among the mountain women. During 
the siege of Knoxville, General Grant desired to send an important 
message to General Burnside. " So overrun was the territory between 
Chattanooga and Knoxville by Confederate troops that it could only 
be delivered, if at all, with great difficulty and hazard. At length, 
Miss Mary Love, of Kingston, Tenn., agreed to take the message 
through the Confederate lines." She got as far as Louisville, 
Tenn., but could get no farther. There she found but one per- 
son who was willing to run the risk of taking the message through 
the lines, and he was a boy only thirteen years of age, John T. 
Brown. He carried the dispatch safely through the lines and de- 
livered it to General Burnside. What a shame it is to us as a nation 
that the historian who records the fact is obliged to add: "He has 
never received from the government any acknowledgment of his 
brave and patriotic service !" 

At the great mass meeting held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, February 
10, 1864, which had gathered to hear the Rev. N. G. Taylor, who 
came from the loyal Highlanders to tell their story to the loyal 
North, the Hon. Edward Everett, who presided, used the following 
eloquent language : " Mr. Taylor represents the Union men in the 
Southern mountains who have stood at the post of danger, on whom 



m 21 190'^ 



the storm of war just broke, and on whom from that day to this it 
has beat with wildest fury. At this distance from the seat of war we 
hear only the far-off roar of the tempest, but all its waves and billows 
have gone over that devoted region." " Overrun it may be by the 
armed forces of the rebellion, but all its sympathies and attachments 
are with the loyal States." "A portion of the same grand chain of 
mountain and valley is as loyal as Massachusetts." Mr. Everett 
closed this wonderful address with these words, and they ought to 
ring in our ears and stir our hearts to day in behalf of these noble 
mountain men and women. He said: "If the Union means any- 
thing, it means not merely political connection and commercial inter- 
course, but to bear each other's burdens and to share each other's 
sacrifices; it means active sympathy and efficient aid." These moun- 
tain people were in danger of starving physically when Mr. Everett 
made this appeal to the sympathy and aid of the loyal North in their 
behalf. But today they are in danger of starving intellectually and 
spiritually ; and shall we fail to respond when sympathy and aid are 
demanded to meet their greater need ? 

These items of our country's debt to these patriotic Highlanders 
were written in their valiant deeds and heroic deaths. Their fertile 
coves were swept with firebrand and sword. Their mountain streams 
ran red with the blood of their murdered kindred. Death looked each 
man and woman full in the face for four long years. And yet they 
stood heart to heart and shoulder to shoulder with the loyal North, 
and never swerved from their unflinching devotion to our common 
country ! 

In addition to the privation and suffering endured by these patri- 
otic Highlanders we must remember that they gave to us our noble 
martyred President, Abraham Lincoln, who was born at Hodgensville, 
in Le Rue County, Kentuck}^ on the western edge of this mountain 
region. " The short and simple annals of the poor" was Abraham 
Lincoln's characterization of his own early life. The cabin in which 
he was born and in which he passed the early j^ears of his childhood 
can be duplicated in the mountain region to-day. And men of just 
such manly and heroic mold as Abraham Lincoln come from these 
same mountain cabins. It adds the element of hope and increases 
our obligation to these splendid mountaineers when we remember that 
he who did more to save our nation than any other man and sealed 
his service by his own life came from these humble but heroic people. 
Abraham Lincoln is a tremendous item in the debt that our country 
owes to these American Highlanders. 

And now comes our opportunity to pay this debt. Let us build 
school-houses and churches where their better cabins have risen from 
the ashes of the past. Let us invade their coves and press up their 
mountain sides with an army of Christian teachers and preachers, until 
the grey old forests that echoed with the shout of these loyal High- 
landers shall again echo with the sound of church bell and school bell, 
and they who took from us the larger sacrifice of the war shall find that 
we are ready to share with them the blessed fruits of peace. So, and so 
only, can we pay the debt we owe as Christian patriots to these patriotic 
Highlanders of our Southern mountains. 



THE WAY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION 
IS PAYING THE DEBT— BY PLANTING 




MOUNTAIN CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 703 637 n 4^ 



